Chapter Four Marius #2
By the time they left the botanical garden, Marius was hungry again, and he was in great spirits, too.
Armin and Bennett were on him as soon as they realized it.
“So, he wrote back?” Armin asked as they strolled down the street. They had maybe half an hour left before they had to be back at the hotel so they could grab their stuff and Owen and get to the venue. It was a big one for them. Not a club, but a concert hall.
Marius was excited for it. He wanted to play in front of thousands of people. Wanted to hear them scream their songs back at him. Wanted to feed on that energy, on that love, like a vampire.
“He did,” Marius replied.
“You will hook up with him again?” Bennett asked.
“If I’m lucky.” God, did he want to hook up with Carden again.
“This has nothing to do with luck,” Armin said. “It’s all about will. You have to woo that guy. Write him a song, take him out to dinner. Once we’re back home, that is.”
Which wouldn’t be for another month. He groaned. He wanted to see Carden badly. It was insane; he had never felt such a pull toward another human being.
Bennett elbowed him gently. “It will be fine. A month is nothing. Just heightens the anticipation, really.”
Marius gave him a look. It wasn’t like Bennett was ever serious about anyone. He was totally the easy come, easy go kind of person.
Armin broke up with his girlfriend of a year once they started to tour around the country in their shitty van. Or maybe she broke up with him. He had been a mess for the first leg of the tour—not on stage, never on stage, but in private it was kind of bad.
“It’s going to be fine. See it this way, without being able to see each other, or, well, touch each other, you can concentrate on really getting to know the guy,” Armin said.
“Carden, his name is Carden,” Marius replied, because he wanted to make clear that Carden wasn’t some random guy. Marius really wanted to get to know him. Wanted something more, and yes, it was stupid to want it after one breathlessly wonderful night of sex and a chat, but here he was.
“Carden. You will get to know Carden, and once you can touch each other, well,” Armin shrugged.
“Okay, guys, we need to find a ride, because Owen will kill us if we are late,” Bennett said.
“Fuck,” Armin said after a quick glance at his phone. “Ben is right.”
“Bennett,” Bennett said.
Armin nodded. “Sorry. Anyhow, he is right.”
So they flagged a taxi and made it just in time to the hotel to collect their stuff and Owen.
They were en route to the venue only moments later.
The whole time he was putting on eyeliner, styling his hair for the show, and agonizing about which t-shirt to wear, he was also wondering if Carden would look this concert up later, once the phone videos were out on social media.
Maybe he would ask Carden to look it up when he called him later.
◆◆◆
“Hi,” Carden said. He sounded a bit breathless.
“Hi, is this a bad time?” He asked.
“If it were a bad time, I wouldn’t have picked up.”
“You sound breathless,” Marius said. “Did you do something fun?”
“Ran to the phone?” Carden replied, and then he laughed. “Did you think I was fucking?”
Marius swallowed. “No, I didn’t think that.
For all I know, you could be working out or something.
I mean, I don’t really know what you like to do in your free time, except paint.
” He had followed the link after all, and it led him to an Instagram filled with paintings and sketches.
There had not been one pic of Carden himself on it.
There was a link to a Patreon where he posted the more risqué drawings.
Marius had signed up for that, of course.
“I also like to dance and hang out with friends and have sex,” Carden said.
“I kind of suspected that.”
“Which one?” Carden asked. Marius could hear the amusement in his voice.
“All three, really? I mean, we met at a club. We were dancing, you were there with a friend, and well…after we had great, enthusiastic sex.” It had been one of the best sexual encounters of Marius’ young life, but he wasn’t going to tell Carden that just yet.
“We did. I really hope we can have great, enthusiastic sex again soon,” Carden said.
“Well, once I’m back in the city, we could maybe have dinner?
” Fuck, he just remembered that he did not have an apartment there anymore.
With how much they had been touring lately, it didn’t make sense to keep it.
When they were in the city, he mostly stayed with Armin and Bennett, as they had a spare room.
He helped with their rent under the table.
He dreamed of leaving this city behind and starting new somewhere else.
Finding an apartment when you didn’t know where you would end up just to have a place to stay didn’t seem like a good idea.
Hotels and the spare room did the job just fine.
But maybe with Carden in the picture now, he should look for a place after all.
There was a lot of silence on the other side of the line. So much so that Marius started to get nervous.
“You want to go out? With me? On a date?”
“Well, yes,” Marius said. Had Carden been thinking he only wanted to hook up?
It was true he usually didn’t date guys he hooked up with after a show, but Carden had been different from the very beginning.
Marius couldn’t put his finger on it. There wasn’t just one thing that pulled him toward Carden, there were probably a million.
“Oh, okay, yeah, I’d love to have dinner with you,” Carden said.
“Good,” Marius said and felt warmth bloom in his stomach.
“Will you need to wear a disguise?”
Marius blinked. “What?”
“I mean, you’re famous, right? So, will you need to come in disguise? Like wearing a flower-patterned shirt and a hat?” Carden was probably teasing, but Marius didn’t know him well enough yet to be sure.
“Are you teasing me?” Marius wanted to know.
“Maybe?” Carden replied. “But I’m kind of serious too, you know?”
“Do you want me to wear a disguise?”
“I would love to see you in a Hawaiian shirt, to be honest. I think it would be…interesting.”
“Hilarious, is the word you were looking for, and no. No patterns.”
“Except for crosses and pentagrams?”
“I’m not religious,” Marius said.
“Neither am I, but I like shapes,” Carden replied. “So no crosses and pentagrams?”
“I might have worn a shirt with crosses for a photoshoot. I don’t own it. The stylist thought it would look good on me and more goth. Edgy, I guess?”
“Even though you are a punk-rock band?” Carden asked.
“Everything looks better in black and gothic,” Marius replied.
“Well, not going to lie, it does it for me too. The eyeliner, the nail polish, the dark and brooding vibe. Makes you look like a bad, bad boy.”
“I’m all soft,” Marius replied and didn’t only mean inside.
“A soft bad boy then.” Carden’s voice sounded soft and gentle in Marius’ ear. He liked it.
“That works for you too?” Marius asked.
“Yeah, it totally does,” Carden replied.
Marius felt his heart grow three sizes, at least.